Clip for cloth-tentering machines.



. PATENTED JUNE 7, 1904. H. W. HO-NEYMKN; i f H I CLIP FOR CLOTH TENT'ERING'MAG'HINES.

(APPLICATION FILED JAN. 13, 1902.

N0 MODEL.

' Inventor.

Attorney.

I: PETEW$ 00 Fun I No. 761,967.

UNITED STATES Patented June *7, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY W. H CNEYMAN, E PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO TEXTILE-FINISHING MACHINERY COMPANY, or PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, A CORPORATION.

CLIP FOR CLOTH-TENTERING MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 761,967, dated June 7, 1904. Application filed January 13,1902. Serial No. 89,610- (No model.)

To (LU, whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY W. HoNEYMAN, a

citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Pawtucket', and State of Rhode Island,

have invented a new and useful Improvement in Olips for Oloth-Tentering Machines, of

which the following, with the drawings here-' by made a part hereof, is a description.

Automatic cloth-clips into which the cloth I may be'fed and in which the upper jaw will be held out of Contact with the cloth until the .latter is so far withdrawn that the jaw will drop upon or just within the selvage have been used upon tentering-machines for sev- I5 eral years past. They operate by means of a finger located back of the upper jaw and above a slot in the lower jaw of the clip, which holds the upper jaw away from the cloth so long as it is prevented by the cloth from falling into the slot.. The better and more delicately-working clips have been made with the finger separate from the upper jaw and pivoted upon its own independent pivot. With very thin goods particularly it is important 5 that there be as little pressure as possible upon the goods by the finger while preserving the quick and positive action of the upper jaw when it is once released from the finger. Various attempts have been made to obtain .3 these results by counterbalancing a portion of the weight and in other ways; but so far as I know they have all proved in practicemore or less defective.

My invention has in view the same object of reducing the weight upon the cloth,wl1ile permittingthe upper jaw to fall quickly when released; but I attain it in a new, simple, and effective manner.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a plan view of 4 my clip. Fig. 2 is a front elevation, and Fig. 3 is a side sectional elevation on line 3 3 of Fig. 1. This last figure of the drawings most clearly shows my invention, and the two positions of the working parts are indicated thereonnarnely, when the clip is closed by full lines and when the clip is open by having the cloth under the finger by broken lines.

The upper jaw A is pivoted to the common and well-known overhanging arms B of the clip at 6 and has an arm or projection O upon its rear side. This arm O is so shaped as to have a downwardly-projecting hook D at its end. The lower jaw, as is common in these clips, consists of a plate P with a slot 1 in its center. The finger or controller is pivoted at 0 in the rear of the jaws; which is a common construction, and is constructed with a deep recess in its upper edge, which virtually divides it into two portionsfnam ely, the lower portion E,which forms the finger proper to rest upon the cloth, and the upper projection F, extending forward over the arm O for the purpose hereinafter explained. The lower portion or finger E has an upward projection or hook G upon its end. The two hooks D and G are so arranged that when the cloth is under the finger they will engage with one another to hold the upper jaw elevated above the cloth.

The shape of the rear surface g of the hook G will control the sensitiveness of the clip. As this is the principle upon which my clip is constructed, it may be well to illustrate my meaning as well as to show how the clip may be made more or less sensitive in practice. It will be evident that if the two hooksD and Or were s ufiiiciently undercut and then caused to interlock they would hold up the upper jaw A and finger E without any cloth or other support under the finger E. Such an arrangement would of course be inoperative and useless, for the finger would not then drop into its slot to release the hook E and the upper jaw A when the cloth is withdrawn from under it; but if with the position of the pivot c as shown inythe drawings the surface g in stead of being undercut were made upon the circumference of a circle with the pivot e as a Center the weight upon the cloth would in the absence of friction between it and the hook D be substantially only the weight of the finger and controller; but it will be found by experiment that with the pivot in the position I have placed it-namely, on a level with and to find such a slant that the downward pressure of the finger due to the weight upon it will be sufficient to overcome the friction, and thereby make the device operative. 1n practice this slant forward will have to be sufiicient to make the clip work positively and.

with certainty. The exact shape will vary with the location of the pivot e and probably with differently-proportioned parts, but can be readily ascertained by experiment. It is, however, entirely feasible to sustain in this manner much of the weight which would otherwise rest on the cloth, leaving only a sufiicient downward pressure upon the finger to insure the proper working of the clip.

Clips constructed upon this principle possess the great practical advantage that they do not require the fine individual adjustment of parts which is necessary in some of the more practicable clips heretofore constructed. Their parts can therefore be more readily made to conform to templets and patterns and then indiscriminately assembled into complete operative clips.

The clamp is preferably opened by a wedgeslide attached in the usual manner to the machine, so placed as to come into contact with the boss H upon the front of the upper jaw A as the clip is moved around the tenter. As the jaw A is thus pressed backward, the arm C attached thereto comes into contact with the upper prong F of the controller to throw it upward and backward, and thereby lift the finger E above the slot in the lower jaw ready to receive the cloth under it.

The upper jaw A is pivoted to the overhanging arms B B by a rod K passing through these arms and the upwardly-projecting cars a a of the jaw A. Between the arms B B a sleeve L surrounds the rod K, and a cotter-pin through the sleeve L and the rod K keeps the latter in place without upsetting or riveting its ends, and thereby renders it easy to take the clamp apart whenever it is necessary to make any repairs upon it. The same arrangement is used upon the pivot for the controller, except that the sleeve is in this instance made integral with the controller, thereby performing the functions both of the cars a a and of the sleeve.

1 claim as my invention- 1. An automatic cloth-clip having a stationary jaw with a slot therein, a support over the stationary jaw, agripping-jaw pivoted to said support with an arm projecting rearwardly and a hook upon said arm, and a pivoted finger arranged to enter said slot and having a hook thereon, the two hooks being arranged to engage one another and their engaging surfaces being shaped to hold the pivoted jaw open with but a light pressure upon the cloth while the finger rests upon it and to permit the two hooks to separate and the, pivoted jaw to close and grip the cloth when the cloth is withdrawn from the linger.

2. An automatic cloth-clip havinga stationary jaw with a slot therein, a support over the stationary jaw, a gripping-jaw pivoted to said support with an arm projecting rearwardly and a hook on said arm, and a pivoted linger arranged to enter said slot and having a hook thereon, the two hooks being arranged to engage one another upon their forward and rearward surfaces respectively and the rearward surface of the hook upon the linger being shaped as described to hold said pivoted jaw open with but a light pressure upon the cloth while the finger rests upon it and to permit the two hooks to separate and the pivoted jaw to close and grip the cloth when the cloth is withdrawn from the linger.

3. An automatic cloth-clip having a stationary jaw with a slot therein, a support over the stationary jaw, a gripping-jaw pivoted to said support with an arm projecting rearwardly and a hook upon said arm, and a pivoted linger arranged to enter said slot and having a hook thereon, the two hooks being arranged to engage one another and shaped upon their engaging surfaces as described to sustain the gripping-jaw and linger by longitudinal stress upon the pivot of the linger but leaving sullicient downward pressure to enable the linger to enter the slot when the cloth is withdrawn from under it and thereby separate the hooks and permit the gripping-jaw to close and grip the cloth.

4. An automatic cloth-clip having a stationary lower jaw with a slot therein,a su )port over the stationary jaw, a gripping upper jaw pivoted to said support with an arm projecting rearwardly and a downward hook on said arm, and a pivoted finger arranged to fall into said slot and having an upward hook thereon, the two hooks being arranged to engage one another upon their forward and rear ard surfaces respectively, and the rear\\'ard surface of the hook upon the linger being shaped as described to hold the upper jaw open with but a light pressure upon the cloth while the linger rests upon it and to permit the linger to fall from the other hook into said slot and the upper jaw to close and grip the cloth when the cloth is withdrawn from under the linger.

5. An automatic cloth-clip having a stationary jaw consisting of a plate with a slot therein, a support .over the stationary jaw, a gripping-jaw pivoted to said support with an arm projecting rearwardly and a hook on said arm, and a linger pivoted at the rear of the plate of the stationary jaw and arranged to enter IOO said slot and having a hook thereon, the two hooks being arranged to engage one another upon their forward and rearward surfaces respectively and the rearward surface of the hook upon the finger being shaped upon a slant from the bottom upward slightly forward of a circumference of a circle with the pivot of the finger as the center, as'described, to hold said pivoted jaw open with but a light pressure upon the cloth while the finger rests upon it, and to permit the two hooks to separate and the pivoted jaw to close and grip the cloth when the cloth is withdrawn from the finger.

6. An automatic cloth-clip having a stationary jaw with a slot therein, a support over the stationary jaw, a gripping-jaw pivoted to said support with an arm projecting rearwardly and a hook upon said arm, a pivotedfinger arranged to enter said slot and having a hook thereon, the two hooks being arranged to engage one another and their engaging surfaces being shaped as described to hold the pivoted jaw open with but a light pressure upon the cloth while the finger rests upon it and to permit the two hooks to separate and the pivoted jaw to close and grip the cloth when the cloth is withdrawn from the finger, and a projection from, said finger extending over the arm upon the pivoted jaw, whereby offset on said projecting arm, the parts being v so constructed and arranged that a portion of the force due to the weight of the pivoted jaw when the controller is resting upon the cloth acts to pull the controller against its pivot instead of to turn it thereon, substantially as described.

8. In a cloth-clip, the combination of a fixed jaw, a support over the fixed jaw, a pivoted jaw provided with a projecting arm having an offset, and an independently-pivoted controller-lever having an offset to engage the ofiset onsaid projecting arm, the engaging point of the offsets being so located that when the controller is resting upon the cloth a portion of the force due to the weight of the pivoted jaw is transmitted to the pivot of the controller by the pulling action produced thereon, substantially as described.

- HENRY W. HONEYMAN.

Witnesses:

ANNIE A. WILLIS, WM, R. TILLINGHAsT. 

